RAZON. - Founder of the Aramaean kingdom of Damascus, son of a certain Eliada (Heb. Rézón ben 'Eljádha'; in the Greek, codices B, L and in the Old Latin: Esrom, perhaps a transcription of the Heb. Hezjón [I Reg. 15, 18], grandfather of Benadad). An officer in the army of Adarezer king of Soba, he escaped the defeat inflicted upon the latter by David (II Sam. 8, 3-6; 10, 15-19). R. gathered other fugitives around himself and became leader of a powerful band of raiders. Having seized Damascus by a bold coup de main, he soon made it the capital of a kingdom which, glorious at times, succumbed only to the Assyrian Empire (732; V. RASIN).
With the aim of controlling the trade routes toward the Mediterranean and Egypt, in addition to Soba and other Aramaean cities, he conquered Hamath, near Hermon (L. Desnoyers [V. op. cit. in bibl.], II, p. 220, n. 1); but the city was taken from him by Solomon (II Par. 8, 3), whom R. nevertheless continued to trouble seriously, more than Edom itself in the south (I Reg. 11, 23 ff.).